


monster (in my bed)

by scribbleb_red



Series: monster (under my bed) [3]
Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alternate Universe, Anal Sex, Blow Jobs, Enthusiastic Consent, Kissing, Lots of Sex, M/M, Monster Under The Bed AU, Neck Kissing, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Porn with Feelings, Rimming, Smut, Tail Sex, Tails, it gets very soft, monster! Neil, monster! sex, okay there might be a hint of plot, smutty valentines exchange
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-21
Updated: 2020-02-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:54:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,862
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22815769
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scribbleb_red/pseuds/scribbleb_red
Summary: Taking a monster to bed ought to be more complicated – or at least, that’s what the sensible part of Andrew’s brain liked to tell him.But for all that Neil was made of phantasmagoria – for all that he tasted of brimstone and fire, that his tongue was sometimes forked, that his skin sometimes shimmered black – it was remarkably easy to drag him out of the shadows, push him down on the bed, take him apart until he was hissing in a language that didn’t belong on any mortal plain. Always had been.A smutty valentines exchange fic.
Relationships: Neil Josten/Andrew Minyard
Series: monster (under my bed) [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1600192
Comments: 70
Kudos: 563





	monster (in my bed)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [djhedy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/djhedy/gifts), [alex_wh0](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alex_wh0/gifts), [psych0midget (cominupforair)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cominupforair/gifts), [shinshin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/shinshin/gifts), [Chryseos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chryseos/gifts), [jewelsofnight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/jewelsofnight/gifts).



> This was written for the amazing Foxpile group who have Very Patiently waited for my contribution to our Smutty Valentines Exchange. Thank you for waiting. I hope you enjoy and sorry (not sorry) about the tail.
> 
> For my usual readers - this might not be what you expect of me. So... if shameless smut isn't your thing, I totally understand. There's more non-sex fics in this series to come. No pun intended.

**monster (in my bed)**

_You are the kindest thing_

_that ever happened to me,_

_even if that is not how our tale is told._

_when everyone else told me I was_

_destined to be a forgotten nymph_

_that nurtured flowers and turn meadows gold_

_you saw that the ichor that resides in me_

_demanded its own throne._

_you showed me_

_how a love like ours can turn_

_even the coldest, darkest realm_

_into the happiest of homes._

_Persephone to Hades, Nikita Gill_

**I**

Taking a monster to bed ought to be more complicated – or at least, that’s what the sensible part of Andrew’s brain liked to tell him.

But for all that Neil was made of phantasmagoria – for all that he tasted of brimstone and fire, that his tongue was sometimes forked, that his skin sometimes shimmered black – it was remarkably easy to drag him out of the shadows, push him down on the bed, take him apart until he was hissing in a language that didn’t belong on any mortal plain. Always had been.

Andrew hovered over Neil’s hips, his nose just grazing the jutting bones and warm, flushed skin. He could hear Neil panting, feel the way his monster from under the bed quivered beneath him – not because he needed to breathe, Neil didn’t run on oxygen after all, but because he was losing control. It was always such fun to see Neil come undone – so Andrew dropped his mouth to the dip between hip and thigh, sucked against the hot skin, and relished the moan that spilled from Neil’s mouth, the way his hands scrabbled at the sheets where Andrew had placed them.

 _Such an obedient monster_ , Andrew thought, appreciating that Neil’s fingers hadn’t found their way to his hair today, just because Andrew told him not to touch. _Yet_.

Andrew’s mouth resumed its trail down the edges of Neil’s pelvis, deliberately doing no more than graze the hard and sensitive cock waiting for his attention. Neil whimpered as stubble scratched at his skin, whined as Andrew dragged his jaw along one toned thigh.

“Stay still,” Andrew said, knowing Neil would listen.

And Neil tried – oh how he tried – but Andrew wasn’t done teasing. Andrew pushed Neil’s legs further apart, shifted to the other side, kissed the inside of one knee and trailed his mouth upwards. For Neil, this was worship and torture wrapped into one. For Andrew it was control, a matter of seeing how far he could push Neil, how long he could hold him on the edge before letting him come undone.

“Andrew,” Neil said. “Andrew, Andrew, Andrew.”

Andrew huffed against the soft skin he was currently exploring, fingers smoothing along the crease of Neil’s ass cheek and his mouth travelling inwards again, back towards Neil’s erection. He liked hearing his name on Neil’s lips, enjoyed hearing him say it like a prayer.

Perhaps Neil deserved a reward for good behaviour.

Andrew pulled away from Neil, met those preternaturally blue eyes as they flashed open, desperate and eager and alive.

“Yes?” Andrew said, hovering so that one word would blow over Neil’s cock.

“Fuck, yes.”

Andrew quirked an eyebrow. He lifted himself up and then swallowed Neil down, splaying his hands over Neil’s hips to keep him from bucking upwards as the monster so desperately wanted to do. Neil’s hands were fists, balled into the sheets, his knuckles blackened.

Andrew watched Neil’s body as he went – sucking and swallowing, flicking his tongue along the veins, the head, the slit that was leaking precum – and gods it was beautiful to behold. Neil’s spine was arched, his throat long and exposed and decorated with Andrew’s handiwork. His scarred torso shuddered and flexed. He moaned, a sound that was so decidedly inhuman but so entirely addictive.

Flattening his tongue, Andrew tasted and took Neil all way into his throat – and his monster keened, actually keened. The burnt scent of Neil’s sweat filled Andrew’s nose as it met curly red hair, and he made sure to swallow around Neil before pulling up and off and then straight back down. Again and again.

Neil threw an arm up over his face. Andrew reached up and grabbed his wrist, guiding one hand to his hair. Neil’s fingers had turned black, nails elongating into talons as he lost grip on his human form.

Andrew used his own hands to tease Neil’s balls, to tweak and tug and sooth where he had first abused. Neil tried so hard to stay still but his back arched again as his head hit the back of Andrew’s throat, as fingers danced around his hole.

Words flew from Neil’s mouth – nonsense, swear words, the names of lower level demons that Andrew was slowly becoming familiar with. His hand tightened in Andrew’s hair, clenching and unclenching and Andrew could feel his own gut tightening as Neil became more and more undone.

 _So beautifully responsive._ There was never any doubt that Neil was enjoying himself.

Andrew took Neil apart piece by piece and when he drew up and told Neil to let go, Neil did – stripes of white cum splattering his stomach.

Andrew dropped his mouth to the mess and licked it up, lapping at the salt-burn-tang of Neil’s belly as he quivered with release, taking himself in hand as he did so.

“Can I…?” Neil started to ask, voice wrecked in that way that let a little bit of hell trickle through. His hand was still in Andrew’s hair, scratching along his undercut as if he didn’t want to let go.

Nodding, Andrew pulled himself upward so that he was kneeling between Neil’s legs, his hand pulling back and forth. “Your hand.”

Neil dropped his hand from Andrew’s head and wrapped it around Andrew’s own fist as he jerked himself towards the edge. He was so close. And Neil was such a sight – legs long and spread, skin marked and bruised and streaked with cum, eyes luminous and huge, mouth swollen where they’d kissed earlier.

Andrew came with a grunt, his own orgasm carrying him away from the room for a second, two. His own cum ribboned over Neil’s abs and chest.

“Messy little monster,” Andrew said.

“Only for you,” replied Neil.

Taking a monster to bed really shouldn’t be so goddamn easy, Andrew thought to himself as he collapsed onto the bed beside Neil.

But as he curled into Neil’s side, those dark arms coming round to hold him, to link their hands together, he also thanked whatever hellspawn created Neil because he wouldn’t have it any other way.

**II**

The problem with taking a monster to bed was that monsters had absolutely no sense of bloody decorum.

There was the time that Neil slid out of the shadows when Andrew was in class and jerked him off at the back of the room.

There was the afternoon that Neil whispered dirty nothings into Andrew’s ear the whole way through exy practice, invisible to everyone, but working Andrew into a predicament he ended up rectifying in the showers with a very willing blue-eyed demon appearing to offer a helping hand.

And there was the morning that Andrew was staring at the coffee machine, dead-eyed and with far too much morning happening around him to realise that Nicky had managed to waylay Neil in the living room. In fact, it took until his mug was full and the cream was added for him to even notice that Neil was not behind him, as he should have been, but missing. And it wasn’t until he trundled back the way he came, two mugs in hand, that he saw Neil perched on the sofa next to his cousin with a wide-eyed and confused expression on his stupidly pretty face.

“Yes, I sleep with Andrew every night,” Neil was saying. “Though lately there has been less sleeping.”

Andrew nearly dropped the coffee.

“I’m just so excited that Andrew found someone and someone so cute too. You look like… like elfin.”

“That’s a bit racist,” Neil said, furrows appearing in his brow.

Nicky laughed. “So you’re sleeping with my cousin and you’re pretty and you’re funny. I can’t believe he found you in Eden’s. I didn’t even know he was gay.”

Neil didn’t reply because there wasn’t a question, so Nicky powered on.

“So. Details.” Nicky waggled his eyebrows. “Tell me everything.”

“Details of what?”

“Tell me all about the great romance that stole my cousin’s heart,” said Nicky. “You must be in that honeymoon stage of the relationship. Can’t keep your hands off each other hm?”

“Are you asking about sex? We are having a lot of it, I suppose.” Understanding dawned on Neil’s face. “And you’re right it’s very hard to keep my hands off because human bodies are very strange. I like to touch him and for him to touch me. But when Andrew gives the orders, I do what I’m told. I like to be good for him like he’s good to me.”

And that was _quite enough_ information for Nicky. Andrew jolted into action, sloshing coffee on the carpet in his haste to extricate Neil from this conversation.

“Oh, hi Andrew,” Neil said. “Is that for me?” He reached out for the coffee and that was when Andrew spotted the glint in Neil’s eyes – _he had bloody known Andrew was standing right there._

Nicky’s face was pink. “Andrew!”

“Shut up, Nicky. Neil, upstairs. Now.”

Unfolding from the sofa with all the grace of the not-entirely-human, Neil nodded his head at Nicky and then turned a wide, sharp grin on Andrew that was far too knowing.

Andrew glared at Nicky before following Neil up to his room. The monster was on the edge of the bed, long legs crossed, head tilted so that he was looking up at Andrew through his lashes. He didn’t say anything, nor did Andrew. They sipped their mugs of coffee. They watched each other. And when Neil was done, he set the mug aside, uncrossed his legs and spread them apart. One hand danced along the edge of his waist band.

“Do you want to touch?” Neil said.

“I want to watch,” replied Andrew.

Neil’s wicked smile widened. “And what would you like to see?”

“I want you to make yourself so hard it hurts. Fuck yourself on your fingers. Play with your nipples. Stay like that as long as you can. Don’t cum until I say so.” 

“As you wish.”

And Neil took himself apart, hovered on the edge of completion, half undressed, fingers teasing under his shirt whilst his grey sweats were tangled around his ankles. In no time, the air was heavy with static and the scent of smoke. It sang of Neil’s arousal, his absolute need.

“Don’t you dare close your eyes,” Andrew said with a snarl when Neil gasped and went to throw his head back. Neil’s attention snapped back to Andrew.

He was quaking, his hand rolling down and up, up and down, thumb smearing over the tip.

Andrew was hard and entranced. His monster was shameless.

“You don’t have any idea what you’re doing, do you Neil? Every time you open that fucking mouth of yours.”

Neil’s teeth flashed as his hand sped faster on his cock, slick now with precum.

“Do you want to cum, Neil?”

“Yes,” Neil said. “Fuck. May I?”

“No,” replied Andrew. “Do you know why?”

Neil whined and his eyes nearly closed but Andrew took a step forward and they snapped wide again. His pupils had nearly swallowed the blue, they were so blown.

“I. Do. Not. Share.” Andrew punctuated each word with a step forward, undoing his own flies as he went. “Do you understand Neil? You don’t give Nicky stories. Those stories are _not for him_. They are _ours._ ”

Andrew shoved his jeans off his hips, stepped out of them and stood at Neil’s knee, fisting his cock and starting a rhythm. Neil was pink with exertion, the air electric.

“Do you understand, Neil?”

“Yes, fuck. Andrew, yes.”

Andrew moved between his legs, pulled Neil upright so that he could kiss him. Hard and biting, he sucked in Neil’s lower lip and nipped down, catching the noises Neil made as he moved to take both him and Neil in hand.

“What don’t you do?”

“Tell stories to Nicky.”

“Why don’t you tell them to him?”

“Because he’s already irritating enough?”

Andrew’s chest constricted. How Neil could sass right now he didn’t know. “Neil,” he said, hand tightening so it was almost painful.

He heard Neil’s gasp. Felt as the monster pressed closer, shivered as that mouth shifted from jaw, to throat, to the spot just beneath Andrew’s ear.

“Because if I feed him stories, he’ll just want more?” Neil added.

Neil’s teeth grew long, nicking at Andrew’s jugular, sending a dark, hot thrill the whole way through Andrew’s body.

_Of course, Neil knew exactly what he was doing. Of course, he’d known Andrew was listening and that he’d react this way. How long had they known each other?_

Andrew pulled away, hand letting them both go but Neil stopped him, grabbed his wrist and tugged him back in.

His mouth brushed against the shell of Andrew’s ear.

“Because they’re _ours_ ,” Neil said.

And Andrew shoved him down on the bed, followed him down.

No fucking sense of decorum, this monster, but fuck did it feel good to be _known_.

“Come for me,” Andrew said – and he chased Neil over the edge.

**III**

When sleeping with a monster – even one that spent significant amounts of time pretending to be human – it was important not to forget where they came from.

Especially on Halloween.

“You said you wanted to see more of what I really look like…” Neil said, tail drooping along with his smile. “Don’t you like it?”

“You have a tail. And horns.” And Andrew couldn’t stop his attention jumping from one to the other over and over.

Neil cocked his head, bit his lower lip in a gesture that did not belong to a literal devil. “Well, I am from hell.”

Andrew paused. It wasn’t like this was a bad thing – far from it.

He had asked.

And he didn’t want Neil to think that these… strange little additions were a problem.

He dragged his gaze from the long black tail that was flicking a few inches above the floor, up Neil’s legs and torso and throat, took note of the way that Neil’s cheekbones looked a little higher tonight, mouth a little wider, how his skin almost seemed to glow, and then how those horns protruded from Neil’s red curls. They were small and deadly, curved just slightly backwards. Andrew wondered if they were smooth, and how sharp. They looked like they could gore a man if he wasn’t careful.

And there were other unnatural touches too – from fingers to elbow, Neil’s skin appeared stained with ink, though Andrew knew it to be the sleeping shadows beneath his human form; and there were the too sharp teeth too, no longer blunted in Neil’s wicked smile. And his eyes, bluer than anything on earth, lined as if by kohl. Andrew swallowed.

“A little unexpected honesty,” he said, keeping his voice level only thanks to practice. “Though everyone else will think it’s a lie.”

Frowning, Neil’s tail curled tight against his leg as if trying to hide. Not that it could be hidden. Neil was wearing a pair of tight jeans that Andrew was immensely pleased to see fit him in all the right places.

Rolling his eyes, Andrew moved into Neil’s space, lifting a hand in a silent _yes or no?_

When Neil nodded, he traced his thumb first along Neil’s jaw and then his cheek, before reaching to stroke his index finger over the sharp little horns. Neil made a sound between a sign and a laugh.

“You look wicked,” he said to Neil. A statement of fact. He could have added: _delectable, devilish, damn near perfect_. But Neil already knew Andrew was obsessed with him – that what they had was it for him.

He pushed against Neil’s left horn with his finger, tilting Neil’s face so that he could easily close the gap and kiss him. Neil smiled against Andrew’s lips, sharper than ever. It should have been illegal.

“Let’s go,” he said. “Before I think of more interesting uses for that tail.”

So, they went downstairs, and Nicky only did a small complain about Neil not dressing up enough for Halloween. It didn’t last long.

“It’s not very original, is it? Devil horns.” Aaron said.

“Still, better a sexy devil than a sexy cat, amiright?" Nicky replied, sending an apologetic look towards Neil, as if the monster cared what Aaron thought about Andrew. "Wait, oh my actual gawd, are those _wings_? Do you _match?”_

Andrew pulled a face over his cousin’s shoulder, only for Neil, as Nicky prowled around him with hearts all but pouring from his eyes.

“Andrew, you’re an _angel_. And he’s the _devil_. This is just too cute.”

Andrew’s fingers twitched towards his armbands, now carefully hidden beneath white strips of cloth. Nicky didn’t miss it and took a step back, hands thrown up but grin wide and unapologetic.

“Not creative but _so cute_.”

Well that much was true. It wasn’t creative, but Andrew found himself funny. He was wearing a white scooped vest-shirt, loose and sheer, holes cut in the back for the pair of fluffy white wings that he’d found in Target, the flying feathers tipped in purple. Along his exposed collarbone and cheeks, he’d printed purple and gold patterns that somewhat matched Neil’s demonically inclined shadows.

Andrew heard a snort from the doorway and turned to see Aaron, dressed as a Sim with a little green gem above his head, and Kevin not far behind with green white skin and wearing red and black. He felt his eyebrow quirk and Kevin made a sheepish gesture with his hand, scratching at the back of his neck.

“Too soon?” Kevin asked. His zombie raven was grotesque and brilliant.

Andrew shrugged. It was too tasteless for him to be annoyed, except that he wished he’d thought of it first. “Nice to see your spine.”

They bundled into the car – Neil in the front seat with his tail draped over his leg.

Andrew did not let his thoughts linger on that tail, definitely not. He had to drive. He had to get them to Eden’s in one piece.

The drive was relatively painless.

Sweeties was delicious as ever (Andrew was not distracted by the little flick of Neil’s tail against his calf under the table).

But then they entered Eden’s and Andrew knew he was really in trouble. Neil’s hips were swaying and his tail along with them. _Not good._

Andrew reached around Neil’s waist, fingers snagging on his belt loops and tugging back, stopping that treacherous, dangerous sway.

Neil turned over his shoulder, smiling. “Dance with me?”

“Drinks first,” Andrew said.

Neil pouted but allowed himself to be steered to the bar, where Roland was serving. At some point the crowd pushed Neil back into Andrew – and he felt the shiver run through Neil as Andrew held him steady, held him up. He knew that Neil liked to feel looked after, that it was something he’d never experienced until Andrew started to look out for him the same way that Neil had protected him since childhood.

This time, however, was the first time that Neil had ever had a goddamn tail.

It swished and flicked, brushed and pushed into Andrew as they stood at the bar.

 _Swish, swish, swish._ Right against Andrew’s crotch. _Flick and brush, flick and brush._

“I still wish you’d let me eat him,” Neil was saying but Andrew wasn’t paying attention. His fingers tightened on Neil’s hip. He ought to push Neil away but it felt… god, it felt good.

Neil’s tail was thick and hard, all muscle, and it moved in such a _specific way_ , a _very inappropriate_ and _increasingly problematic_ way. _Swish, swish, swish_

“Andrew?” Neil said, shifting slightly when Andrew’s fingers clenched even tighter. And then, “Oh.”

Knowing that his face had to be flushed and that his jeans were going to be doing nothing to hide his growing problem, he wrapped one arm around Neil’s waist and pulled him flush against him before putting his teeth to the shell of Neil’s ear and saying: “You need to keep that tail under control.”

“Do I now?” Neil laughed and then --

“Fuck,” Andrew hissed. “ _Fuck_.”

His mind stuttered. His arms tightened around Neil. And that tail twisted around his leg, up his thigh, hard and deliberate against his cock.

“Yes or no, Andrew?”

Andrew thought about saying no, he really did, but how could he when Neil’s head was thrown back against his shoulder, those eyes dark with mischief and already promising one hell of a good fuck?

“One second,” he said to Neil. And he gestured to Roland. “Aaron’ll pick these up.”

The barman gave Andrew a sly look at the same time that Neil rocked forward. Andrew grit his teeth as his tail gave another _brush and flicking_ motion.

“Fucking behave,” he said to Neil. He loosened his grip just enough to slip his hand under Neil’s shirt, fingers finding Neil’s nipple and tweaking it in warning.

Roland leered and said, “Store cupboard is all yours, unless you want company.”

Andrew didn’t deign that with a reply. He grabbed his monster, elbowing them out from between the crowd around the bar. There were annoyed glances, a few grunts of discomfort. Andrew didn’t care.

He was focused on Neil – who let himself be led away from the bar, let Andrew manhandle him to the storeroom, let Andrew shove him against the shelves. Andrew crowded against his back until they were flush together. Wrapping one arm around Neil’s chest, he bent them forward, making sure that Neil gripped onto the shelves before grabbing Neil’s chin, thumb to his carotid, twisting his face for a kiss. Neil’s mouth parted beneath his own, eager and hot, but Andrew gasped as their tongues slid against one another, pulling back with a jerk.

That wicked, wicked grin was back, and Neil licked his lips, confirming what Andrew had just felt. His tongue was forked.

“You fucking menace,” he said, and Neil shoved his hips back against Andrew, tail doing that thing again where it wrapped around Andrew’s leg and aligned in that painfully perfect way. Because of course Neil was a menace. It was in his fucking genetics or whatever it was that monsters were made of – ichor and smoke.

Andrew worked fast, undoing his jeans, undoing Neil’s, pushing them down, dropping to his knees, spreading those cheeks apart, his nose brushing against the underside of Neil’s tail as he licked inside, tongued him open, kissed and sucked and tasted. Neil became loose-limbed beneath his hands, sinking against the shelf, head dropping onto his forearms, spine curling as if he could barely hold himself up, ass pressing back into Andrew’s face. Squeezing the flesh of Neil’s thighs – Andrew listened for Neil’s short, quivering breaths to deepen into pants, into the neediness he found so fascinating and delicious. It didn’t matter than Neil wasn’t quite human, he was one of the most responsive creatures Andrew had ever encountered – he was vocal and wanton and pushed into Andrew’s every touch like he craved it, needed it.

_Perhaps he did._

Andrew drew back enough that his nose rubbed against Neil’s tail again and – _huh, now wasn’t this interesting_ – Neil keened, made a motion like he was squirming.

_Neil was always easy but what was this…?_

Curious, Andrew did it again, testing, pressing his nose and then his mouth to Neil’s tail, breathing over the exposed limb before bringing his mouth up to kiss it. It was so much more solid than Andrew had expected, silken and cool and almost feathery; he could feel a thick, strong, bone right beneath the surface and as his lips caressed it, he realised he could feel sinews and tendons, the pulse of a vein. He flicked his tongue over the vein, suckled and slid his hands up to accompany his mouth.

This tail was incredible – kissing it felt wonderful, stroking it left his palms tingly and hot. But the strangest thing was the taste – not the smoke that he could so often lick from Neil’s collarbone, or the brimstone he found between Neil’s teeth – but true dark.

Like a black and fathomless cave seeping across his tongue. Like the deep sleep after a nightmare. Like the space between stars. The moon during a total eclipse.

Gasping, Neil went still. So very, dangerously still.

Andrew pulled back. “Neil?”

A noise – an aborted sound like a sob – escaped Neil’s throat and then he spun, reaching for Andrew like a drowning man, might have fallen if not for Andrew moving to keep him upright. One of Neil’s legs slipped to the side, hooked around Andrew’s ankle to pull them as close together as possible whilst keeping their clothes on.

His mouth found Andrew’s.

His kiss was a hungry, desperate thing.

His tail found Andrew again – almost like it was reaching for him, stroking down Andrew’s bare shoulders, over the back of his neck, brushing down his legs and up again, leaving that delicious, smouldering sensation in its wake.

Neil’s hands scrambled for Andrew’s, lifted them to his horns and left them there as his kiss turned raw and wild. Darkness filled Andrew’s mouth along with Neil’s tongue.

And all the while, that tail had a mind of its own, brushing under Andrew’s t-shirt, swishing over his stomach, finally finding the gap of his open jeans and dipping down. It was Andrew’s turn to gasp, teeth clashing as he dragged Neil closer by his horns. The tip of Neil’s tail was inside his jeans, inside his boxers, dragging and sliding and he could barely breathe. Neil made an inhuman whine as Andrew pulled away, if only for a second, and then almost seemed to purr as Andrew’s mouth returned to his own.

There was no slowing down, no stopping Neil as more of his tail threaded its way into Andrew’s pants, pushing them lower, lower, until they slipped down his thighs. The tail rubbed alongside Andrew’s cock, pushing between his legs and Andrew knew he should hate this – knew it, but couldn’t – because this was nothing like anything he’d experienced before, nothing like he’d experienced on earth.

It was so wholly uncanny that he let the sensations take him, drag him under, pull him into the heady, addictive darkness of Neil’s mouth and hands and tongue.

Their hips found a rhythm, their hearts spiralling to a crescendo.

Andrew rocked Neil into the shelves, Neil clung to Andrew like a lifeline.

They kissed and kissed again.

Neil’s tail moved between them, and Andrew alternately stroked the sharp little horns and squeezed his thighs around Neil’s tail, he realised that this was sensory overload for his monster – because it was _real_ for him.

That these inhuman parts were bizarre to Andrew, but they were the truest part of Neil.

That everything was _more_ to Neil whilst he was like this – taste and touch and scent and sound.

Showing himself to Andrew like this, _exposing_ himself like this, was so immensely vulnerable – and he’d done it simply because _Andrew_ had asked to see more of his monstrous side.

And as Andrew rutted down against Neil, as Neil’s eyes closed and tears dripped from his lashes, as the two of them flew into a thousand pieces – Andrew felt the desperate need to draw Neil into his chest and cradle him close.

 _Feeling_ consumed him.

A sense of being fully and entirely overwhelmed.

Because he was so fucking grateful for everything Neil gave him.

Every touch.

Every moan.

Every ridiculous, mind-shattering orgasm.

And every other far more important thing: like the nights spent holding hands in the dark; like all those years that Neil protected him from the worst of humanity; like the exy practices where Andrew actually cared because Neil was on the court with him.

He treasured this stupid, beautiful, monstrous man. He cherished the vulnerability that Neil exposed only for Andrew – the intimacy of these moments, the trust and the truths. 

Neil clung to Andrew as he came back to himself. His tail withdrew, gliding out and away. He began to shake in Andrew’s arms.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t—”

“Don’t,” Andrew interrupted. “It was a yes.”

Neil’s breathe was ragged. Andrew pulled him closer. He was dimly aware of Eden’s beyond the door, of the drinks he’d left for Aaron and Kevin, of Roland’s inevitable amusement. But for now, he wanted to hold Neil and never let go.

Neil was a monster, and Andrew would never, ever forget it. 

“We finally made it to a store cupboard,” Neil said.

_Monster, indeed._

**IV**

The night was the kind of quiet made up of a thousand garden sounds: the low hum of cicadas, the gentle nustling of the breeze through the grass, the occasional crick-crack of a small animal picking its way through hedges and undergrowth.

Andrew listened to it, content and sleepy and cosied up against Neil’s back. His forehead lay between Neil’s shoulder blades, one arm beneath the pillow and the other looped around his waist, their fingers were tangled and tucked into Neil’s chest. They breathed in time, steady and slow, drifting in and out of wakefulness.

They’d spent the day quietly, just the two of them in a cabin in the woods, far away from anyone and everyone. It was the first day of Spring Break, and all Andrew wanted to do was hide away from the rest of the world – so Neil had given him this.

A road trip for two out to the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Organised with Nicky and Aaron and Wymack and Kevin to make sure everyone was safe and protected whilst Andrew took some much-needed time elsewhere.

Andrew nuzzled against Neil’s shoulder blade, pressing a kiss his spine.

 _Thank you_ , he’d said to Neil as they’d driven up the winding road. _This is amazing_.

Neil had simply offered his hand across the gear stick and held it tight for the rest of the ride. Soft smile and softer eyes.

He’d never expected this though. To be able to be close like this.

He knew from their many late-night conversations that Neil didn’t experience emotion like humans did – that though he felt fear and hunger and jealousy, it was to deeper depths and higher heights – because monsters were born out of hate, fed on fear, and rarely learnt to experience anything else. Maybe anger. Maybe pain.

Not friendship, not empathy, not hope.

But Neil learnt all of those things and more – he learnt about care and protectiveness, learnt about loyalty and family, arousal and love.

 _And the latter is only for me,_ and the thought still filled him with awe. That Neil didn’t swing. That monsters didn’t have sexuality in their DNA. But Neil wanted Andrew, swung for him and him alone.

Andrew placed another kiss on the next vertebrate and squeezed a little tighter. The feeling was mutual. He couldn’t imagine ever being like this with anyone else.

In his arms, Neil was cool and dark – not sleeping, because sleep was unnecessary to a monster, but quietly feeding off the ghosts in the walls, the dreams that had come before. As Andrew squeezed though, he stirred, burbling a little sleepy noise that made Andrew’s heart feel too small and too large all at once.

“Neil,” he murmured, pressing another kiss just below the last. “Neil.”

His monster twitched, legs stretching and sliding against Andrew’s, making another of those tiny, unconscious noises. “Huh ‘ndrew?” Neil’s fingers curled their joined hands closer together, lifted them to his mouth and pressed a kiss to Andrew’s knuckles. “Issit mornin’?”

“No,” Andrew said, “It’s okay, you can rest.” How could he say that he just wanted to be awake with him? To hold him close and appreciate him?

“Can hear you thinking,” Neil said, wiggling back against Andrew. “Too early. Sky isn’t awake yet.”

Andrew huffed a laugh, heart doing that peculiar _doki doki_ he associated exclusively with Neil (and which he would deny feeling with his dying breath). “

Still as Neil’s lips tickled against his knuckles, as those legs stretched and relaxed against him, Andrew couldn’t help noticing how they’d lined up, so perfectly, so easily, skin to skin. Andrew uncurled his fingers just enough to brush Neil’s lower lip. He felt Neil’s smile bloom beneath his touch, felt the hitch in Neil’s breathing against his chest. Neil’s lips parted and kissed the tips of the index, middle, fourth and pinky before moving to suckle on Andrew’s thumb.

Sex wasn’t what Andrew was thinking of as he drifted along the line before unconsciousness before, but now his stomach grew warm, dick beginning to twitch where it rested against the small of Neil’s back.

Neil’s tongue swept along the length of his thumb, curled around it and sucked. At the same time, he shimmied his hips just a little – enough for Andrew to become full awake and most definitely erect.

Perhaps this wasn’t why he woke Neil up, but with his monster so soft and warm in his arms and apparently so eager to play, Andrew pressed his leg up between Neil’s thighs and asked their favourite question. “Yes or no?”

“Yuh-suh,” Neil said, pulling away from Andrew’s thumb just enough to push the word out before sucking on it once again, hard then soft then hard again. Andrew almost believed he could come just from the sensation of Neil’s mouth, so greedy and perfect and hot.

Rocking his hips slowly against Neil’s warm skin, he shuffled his other hand out from beneath the pillow and reaching round. It was an awkward angle but he gentled his monster from sleepy to hard, letting out the smallest of pants as Neil started to buck up into his hand then back against his own hardened cock.

“Can I fuck you? Neil, do you want me to?” Andrew asked, teeth so very, very close to Neil’s ear.

Neil moaned around his fingers, hooked his ankle around Andrew’s and rolled onto his stomach, taking Andrew with him. He arched his spine, ass pushing up into Andrew and then rolled his head to look over his shoulder, nodding yes and sucking yes and eyes half-lidded but full of such want, such need.

Shifting slowly, he took back his hands, kissed each vertebrate of Neil’s spine on his way down, found his way to Neil’s hole and with his spit-wet thumb, rubbed at Neil’s entrance. He knew Neil was already loose and clean from where they’d fucked on the green, green grass of the garden that evening. But he wanted to be sure that Neil wasn’t sore, wasn’t hurting, that they could do this and it would be good for them both.

“Good?” he asked, pressing just the tip of his thumb inside.

Neil’s sigh wasn’t a yes.

“Neil?”

“More,” Neil said, rocking up against Andrew’s hand so that his thumb sunk a little deeper. “Andrew, gimme more.”

Neil came apart slowly that night – unfurling like a flower beneath Andrew’s hands and tongue, pleasure building bit by bit in them both as their touches stayed tender and kisses interrupted the progress of their climb. Andrew found himself seeking out every noise Neil made, every way his body twitched and tensed, every manner he had that gave himself to the moment and to Andrew.

A thumb became two fingers, became three. Andrew took his time making Neil come undone, ensuring that Neil lost his grip on language. Started to babble words that could be prayers or curses or Andrew’s name. He added lube when it was time and made sure to hit that spot inside Neil that had him swearing in primordial.

At some point, Andrew turned Neil over – wanting to see his face, to kiss the breath from Neil’s lungs before scattering his whole body with small pecks and caresses. He pulled one of Neil’s legs over his shoulder, kissed his calf and thigh before pushing forward, pushing in. Neil exhaled and accepted it, eyes fluttering closed, body taking Andrew like it was the most natural thing in the world, for two people to be so close, so intertwined.

After that, Neil carried the momentum, rocking down, driving Andrew’s deeper and making both of them gasp with mix of pleasure and pain. Their hands clasped on the pillow by Neil’s head. Their eyes met, and the shiver that ran between them was moon soaked and dawn flavoured, a fragment of something wild, something windswept and bleak and impossibly like home, the kind of understanding that made you realise how huge the world was and how many coincidences had to occur to make this moment happen.

“Oh fuck you’re so good to me. Andrew, fuck, fuck, fuck, you’re so good.” Neil’s words were a litany and Andrew did his best to keep the pace slow, slow, slow – going deep, hitting the spot where Neil saw stars over and over.

They glimmered with sweat, their skin dew-damp and lit by the moon, their bodies entwined and glowing. Neil leant up to kiss Andrew, tangling hands in his hair and holding him close. It was like they wanted to merge into one another, become interfused and inseparable.

And Andrew kind of loved that it wasn’t perfect – that the angle of their kiss was awkward, and Neil’s teeth kept catching on his lip in attempt to stay joined – that it was as messy as it was sweet. It wasn’t perfection he was after; it was Neil.

So he kept teasing, making Neil chase after his mouth, only surging forward to steal those delicious sounds – the gasps and moans and noisy little swears and the final low sigh that told Andrew that Neil was reaching the edge. He wrapped a hand around Neil’s cock and with a breath: everything narrowed down to the places where man and monster met – mixing and melting and moving as one.

Neil’s arms held Andrew tight, Andrew’s hips pistoned harder and faster, barely holding their rhythm as first Neil fell and then Andrew chased him down, feeling the clench of Neil around him like a promise.

They drifted back to each other in waves, like the sure tide on a moon-string. Neil’s fingers danced along the muscles of Andrew’s back, gentle and happy. Andrew stroked and soothed the skin of Neil’s hips and sides. He felt heavy and hazy, complete and buried inside Neil. He knew he needed to slide away but couldn’t bring himself to move. He listened to the thumpity-thump of Neil’s heart slowing down off their race and decided it might just be the most brilliant sound in the world.

Andrew went to draw away.

“Stay,” Neil said, shifting so that Andrew sank back into him a couple of inches. “Don’t go.”

“It’ll be uncomfortable for you.”

“Stay,” Neil said again, voice already slippery and soft with oncoming sleep. “Just a little longer.”

How could Andrew say no? He tucked himself close, looping his arms around Neil a little tighter. He pressed a kiss to Neil’s temple. Stared a little too long at the sweet, sleepy smile on Neil’s face as he drew back.

Outside, the night turned slowly into dawn, shifting from twidark to twilight, stars slowly winking out as monster and man curled together and slipped into slumber like two question marks that had already found their answer.

**V**

Neil never expected to fall in love.

Love was a human concept.

It didn’t belong in the vocabulary of monsters – by Mab And Her Ferocious Teeth, they didn’t even have a word for it in their language.

Monsters weren’t supposed to feel any of the things that constituted love. Not the ecstatic highs or the aching longing. Not the urge to hold and touch and be close. Not the warmth, or the softness, or the blooming adoration when the other laughed. Not the happiness of being with them or the gentle swell of contentment upon waking to feel their warmth next to yours.

Monsters were hard creatures, cruel creatures, made of jagged edges and dark shadows. Their favourite food was a human nightmare and for dessert they enjoyed the taste of tears. 

What use was love to a demon? 

You couldn’t eat it.

Couldn’t feed on it.

Couldn’t twist those emotions into something horrifying and awful. Not without losing the essential emotion to other, darker feelings (and that might be a challenge but it wasn’t very fulfilling).

Then Andrew happened to Neil.

Andrew happened and he changed everything. Moved him from possessive to protective, from cruel to creative (he was still proud of the things he did to defend Andrew from those human monsters – and he still believed that humans should leave the monstering to the experts).

Slowly, over years, the changes Andrew wrought in Neil brought them here – to Neil sitting in the Columbia kitchen with Nicky and that word – _love_ – hanging in the air, like an arrow just loosed from its string. 

“I love Eric, I do. But you know how it is when you love someone, sometimes there are things that are just _annoying_ about them. And you love them for those annoying things because they make them who they are but also that doesn’t stop them from being _annoying._ ”

Neil blinked. That was three more mentions of the L-word and he still didn’t know what Nicky’s point was.

“You find Eric irritating,” he said.

“ _Infuriating_ ,” Nicky replied, nodding like his head my fall off. “See, I knew you’d get it. You must find the same with Andrew right? Like you love him, that’s obvious, but he’s also _Andrew_.”

“I don’t find Andrew annoying,” Neil said. _Does he_?

“You’re in denial – I don’t know how since you and Andrew have apparently been together forever,” Nicky grumbled. He rolled his mug between his palms, sending coffee over the lip and onto the table. Neil’s eyebrow twitched. “God you’ve even picked up his mannerisms. You’re too cute.”

“Uhhh… Eric?” Neil said. He wanted to move away from talking about him and Andrew.

“Gah, Eric. Love of my life. Light of my heart. The most frustrating man in the world. He just is so… so _steady_ , you know? He’s never phased. He’s always so _measured_ and _considered_. I’ll be freaking out and he’ll take an adorable but _annoying_ pause and then offer so many _solutions_ and god I appreciate it so much but sometimes… sometimes I wish he’d just let me rant and agree with me. I don’t need a problem-solver, just an ear to listen. Also he’s just not a planner. We’re talking about holidays and he’s like _whatever you want, bring your family to Germany or I’ll come to you_. It’s lovely that he’s so willing to bend for me – not like that, you dirty boy, but also yes like that – but really would it be so hard for him to make some suggestions or tell me what he wants? You get me right? You and Andrew have been together so long.”

Neil didn’t reply. Wasn’t sure that he could.

He rubbed the back of his neck, wishing Andrew was here to stop this conversation with Nicky because it was causing him too many thoughts and he wasn’t sure he was ready to process them yet.

However, it turned out that this was the kind of conversation that stuck with you. Nicky’s words were a circle in Neil’s head and he couldn’t loop out of them.

He kept thinking about Andrew’s habits – tearing his food into tiny pieces before eating, the way his hands itched towards his knives when nervous, how he constantly tasted like sugar and cigarettes, the heavy weight of his stare that _always, always, always_ knew where Neil was even when invisible to everyone else in the room. There was the way Andrew pushed his face away when Neil was doing too much staring, the touches on the back of his neck as if to be sure he was there. There was the automatic move to hold Neil’s hand at night, as they had done for over a decade, and the way Andrew never ever assumed that it was a _yes_ even though there was rarely a chance these days of Neil saying _no_.

Did Andrew’s careful tread along their boundaries annoy him? No. Not even when he was hot and hard and desperate and Andrew still needed to check before going forward.

Did Andrew’s penchant for quietness and solitude annoy him? No. Neil was the same. He liked spending time with some of Andrew’s weird human teammates but he far preferred things when it was just them, away from the world, together.

Then again…

What about the way Andrew always played music but refused to tell him the names of songs, even when he quite liked them? Or how Andrew still wouldn’t explain what the google was? Or how he picked up every human book about monsters and read out highly inaccurate passages just to see Neil’s eyes bug with how _wrong_ they were? Or the pranks? The little lies – like telling him that unless Neil ate ice cream, his human form would stop being able to produce semen, or the time before that where Andrew said that if he ate too many carrots, he’d go blind. Some of those were mean.

 _Asshole_ was a frequent thought in Neil’s head. But that was also _Andrew_.

Andrew wasn’t a warm person or a soft person. He wasn’t a kind person. He had teeth as long as Neil’s and claws to match. He was vicious and relentless and uncommonly fierce. His humour was dark and little mean.

And then he would gently take Neil apart, make him taste pleasure and feel _so many things_ that shouldn’t belong to a monster.

And his hands were sure and steadying and safe.

And in so many ways he was the kindest thing that ever happened to Neil. The first person to see more in him than darkness and cold ichor.

Maybe he did understand Nicky.

But did that mean… he was in love with _Andrew Minyard, human, mortal_?

When Andrew came home that afternoon, only slightly riled from his day out with Aaron – a suggestion from their talking woman, Bee – Neil decided to ask.

“Question,” Neil said. He was perched on the bed, watching Andrew change, appreciating the sight of the t-shirt coming off, the muscles coming out. _Andrew was so very nice to look at._ “Am I in love with you?”

Andrew froze. Half-dressed, Neil saw the exact muscles that tensed in his shoulders and spine.

 _Pretty_ , he mused, but he thought that about Andrew a lot so it slipped away like a sigh.

“I don’t know, Neil,” Andrew said. “Are you?”

Neil realised then that perhaps this question was _not_ a good one to ask. Andrew’s voice sounds like it’s full of nails, scratched and spiked and cold.

“I think I am,” he said – then just in case that was wrong as well – added, “Based on what Nicky said today.”

“And what did _Nicky_ say?” Andrew turned and Neil tried not to stare too long at his collarbone, the coiled power in his shoulders, the dip to his sternum through his pectorals, the thickness of his waist and the honed muscles from the gym. Andrew was what Nicky called “thicc” – apparently spelt without a K – which Neil took to mean: solid and strong and impossibly sexy.

Neil chose his next words carefully. “That he loves Eric the same way I love you.”

“Gooey and gushing, with our hearts in our eyes. _No._ ”

“You’re sneering, so maybe he was wrong… but he said that he found Eric infuriating but loved him anyway. And that I would understand because I have you. I think I do understand.”

Andrew blinked. Took a step forward. Took a step back. Crossed his arms. Frowned with both his eyebrows in a way that Neil rarely saw. It made his face seem hawkish, predatory. Neil licked his lips. Saw Andrew’s gold eyes glitter and felt a little fizz in his stomach for putting that look there.

He uncurled a little from his seated position, leaning back on the mattress and uncrossing his legs. Andrew’s bare chest hitched, transparent to Neil in the best way.

“What Nicky said made me think about us. Because you’re an asshole,” Neil said, “But in a way that I like. And you’re insufferable, but I still want you.”

“ _I’m the insufferable one_ ,” Andrew muttered, glaring. “You can want someone who’s wrong for you, Neil. You can be sexually attracted to someone, even when they hurt you.”

“I can’t. You know that. It doesn’t work that way for me. It’s just you.”

Andrew sucked in a breath. It hissed between his teeth.

“Love isn’t a word we have back home, but I think it applies to you.”

“ _Love._ ” Andrew said. There was so much emphasis. “ _Me_. _You._ ”

Neil cocked his head. “Are you broken?”

It was like Andrew had been shocked – his face going brutally blank. And then his gaze caught fire. He crossed the room in four strides and took Neil’s face in his hands, fingers brushing the buzzed hair at the back of his head. The motion was aggressive, the touch was warm. He paused there, just staring down at Neil, half kneeling between Neil’s legs on the bed, bending towards him, seeking for something that Neil didn’t understand.

Waiting, he let Andrew search his fill. He stared back, drank in the fierce lines of Andrew’s face with a feeling that was equal parts fond and confused. Andrew didn’t use words like most people. He hoarded them.

“I most definitely think that I—”

Andrew shut the words up with a kiss – and okay that was _annoying_ because Neil _wanted to say the words_ – but also this was how Andrew communicated. He was a man of gestures, of action. Neil loved him for that.

 _Loved_.

So he tilted his mouth against Andrew’s and tried to speak the same language – saying all the things they never usually vocalised.

That he liked their stupid conversations about nothing on the rooftop of Fox Tower.

That his favourite taste was Andrew when his mouth was full of cigarette smoke.

That he appreciated how careful Andrew was with him, knowing that Neil didn’t always understand everything he was feeling in this human realm.

That it meant the world, Andrew taking time to memorise Neil’s responses just to elicit them over and over. 

That he wanted him, not just physically – though that was a given – he would always want Andrew’s bruising kisses and his gentle hands.

But he wanted more too.

The sunrises, when Andrew’s blond hair was a halo and eyes shone, dangerous and gold and otherworldly. The days of mocking and teasing and pranking and threatening that he hoped would last until they were wrinkled old men who could taste their own mortality. And the nights, those endless hours of half-dreams where they curled close, safe and together and sated.

Neil swept his tongue against Andrew’s lips, deepened the kiss. Leaning up, he caught the broken sound that Andrew made into his mouth as they pressed close, treasuring that noise for the gift that it was.

The kiss became a storm, filling Neil with crackling heat that was only contained by Andrew’s hands – so gentle around his face. There was _need_ there and _want._ There was also a promise, that this was everything and they were never letting go. Neil lifted his fingers to Andrew’s wrists and held there. There was electricity in Neil’s veins, his body singing and alive as Andrew kissed him and kissed him and kissed him with that generous mouth.

They only drew back when it became necessary to come up for air - like the tide retreating, slow and sighing.

Letting go of Neil only long enough to slump down on the bed, Andrew tucked his nose into Neil’s shoulder and shivered as Neil shifted to nuzzle along the sensitive skin of his throat. They were warm and heavy against each other, Andrew breathless and rumpled, skin a beautiful pink that Neil utterly adored. How could he resist? He nosed at the hollow beneath his jaw, down to his collar bone. 

“Insufferable, insatiable, insolent,” Andrew muttered as Neil made a small movement that dragged their hips together and made their unsteady breathing hitch yet again.

Neil did it again, knowing that Andrew would recognise the sharpness of his smile, close as it was to his jugular. He could feel the hammering pulse there, telling him exactly how affected his human was. He liked that knowledge.

“Idiot,” Andrew hissed.

Then he rolled on top of Neil, pushed his hands deep into Neil’s hair and pressed their foreheads together.

“You are excruciating.”

Neil grinned, happy and warm. “So are you.”

Even if love didn’t exist in the language of monsters, maybe it did for them.

**Author's Note:**

> SO THAT WAS UMMMMMM... INTERESTING TO WRITE. 
> 
> Thoughts. Feels. Hit me. You know I live for your comments.


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